Life's Choices
by Midnight the Black Fox
Summary: There are consequences to every choice in life. So we can only hope we made the right ones. After a major injury resulted in a long lasting coma, Rico has no idea what's real or fake anymore. And the problem is he's not sure if that's a good thing or not. Humanized.
1. Prologue

**A/N: In response to a message from Ems602 I've decided to post this story along side Operation: Back to Basics. The two stories will take turns updating thus meaning that updates will be more organised :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Penguins of Madagascar. So without further ado - Enjoy! :D**

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Prologue:

"Hurry! He's losing a lot of blood!" A man called over the frantic voices of the others around him.

"Skippah!" A frantic British voice called.

"Kowalski!" Another voice spoke, his tone barely hiding the fear in his voice.

"I'm trying Skipper!" The first voice replied, it was stressed and sad. There were a bunch of sounds with doors closing and voices most of the voices began fading.

He opened his eyes slightly, the blur of the moving ceiling made him nauseous tilting his head he spotted a familiar face, he smiled as he watched the scientist scribble on the notepad before him. He coughed his chest tight and burning, it made breathing with his dry throat feel like he was choking.

The scientist looked at him, his eyes widening slightly a small smile on his face, though his eyes showed how worried he really was. Rico could tell how bad his predicament was by looking at him, he smiled again despite his spinning head that forced him to close his eyes.

"Stay with me Rico!" Kowalski's voiced commanded, Rico looked at him with another smile. The room had stopped moving now, which slightly concerned Rico. His fear must have shown for his friends expression changed. "You're going to be fine." He spoke placing a hand on Rico's shoulder.

Rico gripped Kowalski's arm, afraid to let go. He was afraid to close his eyes now fearing that he would never wake up, he didn't need to be Kowalski to know that his situation was grim. Heck he bet even Private knew how bad this was. Kowalski's grip tightened but neither let go, they continued to stare at each other preferring their own world to the tragic one they were in.

There were other voices in the room they spoke about "prepping a patient" and how to address injuries with complicated names. Rico's head spun making him groan in pain it was like waking up to the sun blinding your eyes after you've been in the dark too long. He couldn't stop the action of closing his eyes, it helped slightly as it blocked out the bright lights above him.

"Rico?" Kowalski questioned. Rico hummed, it was odd his friend sounded so distant yet the grip on his arm told him different. "Rico?" He questioned again. Rico hummed again sounding more asleep this time as his grip on the scientist seemed to loosen. "Stay with me Rico." The scientist growled to his friend.

Rico laughed slightly. "'M 'ot goin' 'o'ere 'Walski." Rico smiled as he felt himself relax the world falling into darkness with all his pain being left behind for when he woke up. Surely his friends wouldn't be too mad at him sleeping, after all his head was giving him a lot of trouble and he wanted to sleep off the sickly feelings that came with his tired body. He smiled, he wasn't going to sleep too long, besides someone would always wake him later if he overslept.

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**A/N: Sorry it's short but hopefully you won't have to wait too long for an update :D**


	2. Chapter 1: Reality Check

Chapter 1: Reality Check

Rico yawned stretching as he moved to get out of bed, glancing at the clock he paled, he had slept in. Dressing quickly Rico dashed out the room, the hallway was different, he guessed Skipper must have repainted. Entering the kitchen he was surprised to see it empty. Humming in confusion he began to walk around hoping to find someone. He checked the living room, no one. Rico sighed in frustration, where was everyone?

"You're up!" A voice sounded from behind, Rico turned slowly not recognising the voice. The weapons expert literally jumped back in surprise, his shock startling the other person who held his hands up defensively. "Sorry." He apologised as he watched Rico stare at him. He was young, Private young, his bright green eyes framed by a mess of brown hair. "Are you okay?" He asked moving closer, "You look like you've seen a ghost." he stopped advancing when Rico moved away from him.

"Ah you're up good." Another voice spoke, Rico turned, that voice he knew. Within a heartbeat his shock turned to anger as he glared towards the new person in the room. He looked around Skipper's age, his grey eyes cold with his blonde hair combed back neatly. "What?" He asked looking himself over completely puzzled by the latter's expression.

Rico growled as he lunged forwards to strike the man who had little time to dodge. "What are you doing?" He yelled as he avoided Rico's fists.

"Rodrigo! Stop! You're going to hurt him!" The brunette from before yelled. Rico didn't care he wanted to destroy the man before him, just the mere sight of him made his blood boil. Before his fist connected with the man's face the younger one stepped in between ready to take the blow for the other. Rico stopped his first frozen in mid-air, the boy looked up slightly confused, Rico growled as he moved away it was painfully clear that he wouldn't be fulfilling his personal goal.

"What's wrong Rodrigo?" The brunette asked following the weapons expert across the room.

Rico huffed, "Nothing." he froze. His sudden change was noticed by the other occupants.

"Rodrigo?" The boy questioned reaching out for him. Rico was visibly shaking and it was scaring him.

Before the boy could place his hand on his shoulder Rico was running towards his room, the door flung open with a loud thud as he searched for a mirror. His room looked different than his current one, now that he thought about it, the whole house was different. Rico shook his head he'd think about that later right now he wanted a mirror.

Throwing the wardrobe door open he was relieved to see a mirror on the back of the door. He stared at his reflection, his body was still normal though his clothes weren't the black and white he was now used to. His eyes moved to look at his face, it was then that his visibly paled, hands flew to his mouth both to stop himself from screaming and to make sure what he was seeing was real. There was no scar, his skin was fine, as though there had never been a five inch long scar that ran across his mouth and partially down his neck.

He continued to feel the flesh but it was smooth, it was alien. Ripping off his shirt he scanned his torso, half of his scars had disappeared, there was a small one on his shoulder and another one by his ribs. Even his back was clear of any damaged skin.

"Rodrigo?" The brunette questioned standing at the door with the other male. "Are you alright?" He asked, Rico noticed that he was having difficulty just standing in the doorway and he silently wondered why he didn't just enter the door was open after all.

"Fine." He replied, a hand went to his throat it was scary not hearing his voice come out in a raspy tone. "I'm fine." He repeated though it was more for the fact that he wanted to make sure his voice was actually working. Rico smiled, as he caught his reflection in the mirror once more. He laughed the action startling the pair in the doorway, Rico continued to laugh as he spun around before he dashed over to the door. His arms wrapping around the young brunette as he picked him up in a hug spinning him around as he laughed.

"Perhaps we should get Francis back to check on him." The blonde muttered to the brunette as he was placed back on the floor with Rico moving back to the wardrobe.

"Francis?" He questioned looking at the pair as he pulled on a shirt before closing the wardrobe doors.

"Yes. We had Dr. Blowhole examine you after the accident." The blonde replied. "He did say that it would take a while for you to wake up…."

"And that you may not remember everything." The boy finished. Rico had stiffened from the name Blowhole and onwards. He couldn't believe that they had let that psychopathic scientist treat him.

"Can you tell us what do you remember?" The blonde questioned, moving to the side as Rico walked past. Rico thought for a moment before he came to a sudden stop the pair behind him collided with his back.

"Kowalski!" Rico breathed, in his excitement he had forgotten his friends. His heart ached as he felt like something was off. Where were his friends?

"Kowalski?" The brunette echoed confused. "Who's Kowalski?" He asked looking at Rico with slight worry.

"Perhaps a figure from your imagination. You have been asleep for a long time, it's possible that your mind created a dream world so that you could recover more quickly?" The other guessed. Rico's heart sped up. A dream? Everything he knew about his life, his friends. It was all a dream.

They had just entered the living room when Rico collapsed into the nearest chair his head falling into his hands. This wasn't fair, the life he knew so well was a lie. Which meant that his friends were make believe. His heart ached there had been so many people he had cared for and grown attached to.

Rico felt a hand on his shoulder he looked up to see the young brunette looking at him worriedly his smile only slightly reassuring. His head fell back into his hands as tears threatened to fall, "Can you give me a minute?" he asked, there was a pause before two pairs of footsteps moved to the door across the room.

Once they were gone Rico stood up silently and made his way back to his room down the hall, entering he softly closed the door before falling against it as his tears began to fall.

A lie, everything he knew, was a lie.

Rico wasn't sure how long he had been sat behind his door, he was thankful no one had bothered him he needed time to gather his thoughts. His stomach rumbled signalling that it wanted food, with a sigh Rico stood and made his way for the kitchen. _So let's see, the life I've been living seems to be somewhat a lie. Skipper, Kowalski, Private and most likely everyone at from Bell Tower Road aren't real either._ Rico sighed this was a lot to wrap his mind around.

Opening the fridge he noted that there was a lot of food, browsing he came across some fish that had been stored in a container. Smiling he took them out to cook. _And now I'm living here with Arthur and Samuel, so what does that mean about everything else?_ He questioned the knife in his hand cutting the fish into tiny pieces.

"Rico?" The explosives expert turned the brunette was standing nearby.

"Hey Arthur." Rico smiled turning back to his cooking.

"Since when do you cook?" Arthur asked coming to stand by the older man. Rico paused.

He turned to look at the younger male confusion clearly written on his face. "I don't cook?" Rico asked feeling slightly disappointed by this.

"Nope. R.D usually does that."

Rico hummed but continued chopping at the fish, his movements' fluid as though he had done it his entire life. "So what do I usually do?" Rico asked, he was still finding it odd how he was able to speak after what felt like years of speaking in strangled incomplete sentences.

Arthur stopped moving through the cupboards he turned to Rico with a concerned expression. Shifting his weight slightly he spoke, "Rico, what do you actually remember?" Rico shifted slightly, his hands scooping the chunks of fish into the waiting frying pan.

"Um… Mostly the life I had in my coma." He turned to face Arthur his expression hinting at his pain. "I don't know what's real anymore." Rico admitted as he turned to glare at the frying pan.

"Hmm, well lets' see. What do I know about you that you've been willing to share?" Arthur muttered a hand raising to his chin. "Oh. You were born in Peru. Though where in Peru you never mentioned. Your mother was from England and your father was from Spain, after meeting in Peru during a holiday they fell in love and decided to never leave.

"You mentioned that you were a child when your parents _died_." He used air quotes on the word died. "You were living on the streets for months before you came across a group who took an interest in your talents. You worked with them for a few years before leaving to go off on your own…. Not that that went down well.

"After another few months of living alone you eventually joined a criminal organisation. You quickly became one of the strongest members before you learned something the boss didn't want you knowing. About a month later you took them all out. Which earned you your current reputation as one of the most feared criminals in our underground society." Arthur smiled.

Rico nodded so some things were still true, he sighed. "So this means that I haven't expressed an interest in joining the military?" Arthur shook his head.

"Hey! There he is!" Someone called making the pair in the kitchen look to the door. A thin man with black and green dyed hair with brown eyes stood in the doorway, a large smile plastered to his face. "Rodrigo, my friend." He said hugging the confused Rico who turned to Arthur.

Arthur smiled, "You remember R.D right? The chef slash assassin that does the boring stuff." R.D stood back a mocked shocked-hurt expression covering his face as he gasped.

"You don't remember me!" He gasped again his hand flying to his heart. "Man that hurts." He laughed. "But seriously great to see you up and about." He clipped Rico's shoulder with a smile before he spotted the cooking fish. "You're cooking!" He yelled his hands flying up. Rico shrugged as he continued, flipping the fish over noticing that they were almost done.

"He's been a bit off." Arthur spoke as he sat on the counter.

"So I see." R.D glanced at Rico. "Well as long as you don't set anything on fire or replace me as chef I'm cool."

Rico smiled as he finished with the fish tipping the food onto a plate while dumping the equipment in the sink. He moved through to the dining room, it was much bigger than the one he'd dreamed of in his life as a P.E.N.G.U.I.N.

"You seem off Rodrigo. Everything okay?" R.D asked sitting opposite him while Arthur sat in a chair near Rico. The former P.E.N.G.U.I.N nodded as he continued to eat, his mind however was distant.

He wasn't seeing his current life, he could still see the others in his mind eating the food he had just prepared and his friends complimenting him. He could hear Private's childlike laughter and then Skipper spoke, only for Kowalski to interrupt with complicated words he didn't understand, which made everyone look at him before he sighed in annoyance. Rico laughed it was fun to watch Kowalski make a fool of himself, it made up for how cocky he got when his inventions actually worked.

Someone was shaking his shoulder pulling him from his thoughts, he looked to see Arthur standing next to him looking worried. He glanced at R.D who looked more confused than worried. Rico sighed his eyes falling on his food, he smiled thinking of something. Without a word he shoved a piece of fish into Arthur's mouth and waited for the reaction.

After a few seconds of chewing Arthur's eyes lit up a smile forming on his face. He looked to R.D. "This totally beats your cooking." He smiled. R.D stiffened he looked ready to lunge and try some yet something seemed to hold him back.

Confused Rico offered the plate with a wave, R.D didn't hesitate and dove for a piece. In a blink of an eye he was chewing, savouring the flavour as his own bewildered expression took over, he looked from the plate to Rico to the plate again his mind trying to form a connection. "They are better." R.D whimpered his head falling into his arms. "I knew it I'm being replaced!"

Rico laughed making R.D look up. "You're not replacing me?" He asked a hopeful look in his eyes. Rico shook his head, nope. "You're not talking much…. Everything okay?" The way he said it made it sound like he was treading on thin ice.

"Yup." Rico said, he coughed slightly the feeling still odd that his voice was so clear.

"There you are!" A man said entering the room, he was well built like Skipper yet he was much taller than the P.E.N.G.U.I.N leader. His brown hair was short with his dark blue eyes almost black.

"Hey Danny." R.D said as the man moved further into the room, he stopped when he spotted Rico.

"Rodrigo. Y-You're up." He stuttered with a smile. Rico smiled and gestured that he could sit down, he did so immediately. "So I've got some good news and bad news." He said changing the topic back to his original one.

"What's the bad news." R.D asked leaning back on his seat.

"If we move our work into New York we're in for a lot of competition."

"And the good?" Arthur asked Rico glanced at him, he reminded him so much of Private.

"We can get the base we need in New York to being our work." Danny replied with a smile.

"Why can't we just stay here?" Arthur asked, both R.D and Danny gave him a deadpan look.

"How typically naive of you." Danny replied, "We'd be moving up there to expand our territory. After all the stronger the organisation, the more they control. We already control 89% of the undergrounds criminal activities. Moving to New York is a tactical advantage for us." he smiled. "Of course we all know that the decision's yours; Rodrigo." Danny said turning to Rico. "Do we stay or move?"

Rico thought for a moment if things were like Arthur said they were, and he really was a feared criminal it meant that the decision to move would be a good one. After all his empire here was powerful enough to survive if he moved. His mind clicked with something, they would be heading to New York, the place he had lived with Skipper and his friends. He wondered if any of it had been true. "Move." He replied with a smile.

Danny nodded as he stood, "I had best go tell everyone else the plan then." he smiled giving a quick bow before leaving the room. Rico sighed as he stood up, he needed something to do, bored he decided that a look around the house wouldn't hurt.

R.D turned to Arthur his eyes glancing at the plate of fish, "Is he going to eat that?" he asked the younger man who shrugged before he jumped up to find Rico as he had a feeling that his friend still had a few questions.


End file.
